California and American Paintings Take the Stage at John Moran Auctioneers’ October 18th Auction--Over 200 quality works of art to be offered
--Estimates ranging from under $1000 up to $80,000
Pasadena, CA – Works by leading American and California artists spanning the mid-19th to mid- 20th

News-Antique.com - Sep 26,2011 - --Over 200 quality works of art to be offered
--Estimates ranging from under $1000 up to $80,000

Pasadena, CA – Works by leading American and California artists spanning the mid-19th to mid- 20th centuries will be offered at John Moran Auctioneers’ third California and American Art Auction of 2011. The sale represents a broad survey of the American experience, with 210 oils and watercolors including Impressionist landscapes, still lifes, Westerns, American Scene subjects and California School watercolors, as well as sculptures. With estimates ranging from under $1000 up to $80,000, the sale presents excellent opportunities for new collectors entering the market as well as for seasoned buyers. The sale is scheduled for Tuesday, October 18th at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, CA and bidding is available from the floor, via absentee or telephone, or online through Artfact.com.

The highest-value lot in the sale is one of the highly covetable beach scenes by Edward Henry Potthast (1857 – 1927). The charming, softly colored oil depicting two young girls wading in the surf is offered for $60,000 – 80,000. Other East Coast artists represented include Emile Gruppe (1896 – 1978), Alexis Fournier (1865 – 1948), whose tonalist sunset landscape ‘’Evening’’ is estimated to sell for $10,000 – 15,000, and Augusta Savage (1892 – 1962) who is represented by two sculptures, a plaster titled ‘’Gamin’’ (estimate: $10,000 – 20,000) and a cast-metal work titled ‘’Lift Every Voice and Sing’’ (estimate: $8000 – 10,000).

Among the later 20th century works is a typically, and wonderfully, cryptic work by Henry Koerner (1915 – 1991) titled ‘’The Wedding Party’’ (Birth of a Book). Replete with many of Koerner’s distinctive and jarring iconographical devices, and a multitude of disparate, clashing figures in various roles, this dream-like scene is a fine example of his ‘Magic Realist’ style. It arrives at auction from the private Los Angeles, CA collection of close friends of the artist and is estimated to realize $15,000 – 20,000. Moran’s recently sold an important work by Koerner from the early 1950’s at their June 14, 2011 auction for $252,000.

Additional sale highlights include:
• A stunning, icy winter scene with figures set beside a bridge over a stream in a Normandy village by George Ames Aldrich (1872 – 1941)
• A superb Paul de Longpre (1855 – 1911) watercolor composition of chrysanthemums in a woven basket with three bumblebees (estimate: $20,000 – 30,000)
• One of Jessie Arms Botke’s stylized oil and gold leaf bird paintings, a depiction of egrets, from a Private San Francisco, CA collection (estimate: $40,000 – 60,000)
• Yosemite scenes by Thomas Hill (1829 – 1908)(estimate: $15,000 – 20,000) and Albert Bierstadt (1830 – 1902)(estimate: $7000 – 9000)
• A lovely late work by John Frost (1890 – 1937), ‘’Sweeping Autumn Landscape’’, offered for $30,000 – 50,000
• Gordon Coutts’ (1868 - 1937) poignant ‘’The Third of August’’, subtitled ‘’France Enters WWI’’, a large oil of a soldier bidding goodbye to his family as he departs for the front (estimate: